A lack of long-term care for drug overdose victims is hampering B.C.鈥檚 fight against the opioid overdose epidemic that claimed 1,400 lives last year alone.
BC Centre on Substance Use director Dr. Evan Wood said that although the national guidelines on addiction treatment released Monday have been piloted in B.C. since July, the province hasn鈥檛 implemented them to their full potential.
The problem, Wood told Black Press, is that didn鈥檛 receive the evidence-based treatment that could have saved their lives.
Currently, the burden is falling to first responders, and although Wood noted they鈥檝e 鈥渄one an admirable job,鈥� he said treating the overdose crisis as an acute care issue isn鈥檛 solving the problem.
Unfortunately, once paramedics bring their patients to an emergency room, there鈥檚 little help for them there and first responders province-wide have expressed frustration that they see the same patients week after week.
鈥淚f someone is brought to an emergency room because they鈥檝e been resuscitated from a non-fatal overdose, there鈥檚 simply nothing in terms of being able to start the medications, referrals to someone who knows how to treat opioid addiction care. It鈥檚 a system that still really needs to be developed,鈥� he said.
LISTEN: Dr. Evan Wood on where addiction treatment is failing patients
At best, the patient is directed to a short-term overdose detox clinic that Wood said can do more harm than good.
鈥淭hat鈥檚 usually a three- to four-day withdrawal off of opioids, and then they鈥檒l be discharged without any further treatment or support,鈥� Wood said.
The new guidelines are pushing for the practice to be nixed.
鈥淥ffering withdrawal management as an isolated strategy actually increases fatal overdoses,鈥� he said.
Researchers found that without a long-term system in place, a short-term detox increases the risk of relapse, HIV and hepatitis C transmission and overdose deaths.
鈥淎 four-day detox where someone is discharged to the street? You鈥檙e better off doing nothing,鈥� Wood said.
He said he鈥檚 starting to see shifts from the province on how it鈥檚 approaching addiction treatment.
鈥淚t鈥檚 been so neglected as a discipline in medicine. Most programs are mental health and addiction in name only.鈥�
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Conversely, Wood said, the escalating overdose crisis has brought the past inadequacies of B.C.鈥檚 opioid-addiction treatment into sharp focus and forced both the province and local health authorities to implement evidence-based treatments.
Wood blames the 鈥榳ar on drugs鈥� approach for pushing funding away from the healthcare system and towards the legal system.
鈥淲hen you criminalize a disease and have a total criminal justice approach to a health issue, that makes it very difficult to address stigma,鈥� said Wood.
鈥淚t鈥檚 reckoning time right now in Canada to look at all the unintended consequences of the war on drugs.鈥�
Wood said he would like a study on how Portugal鈥檚 decriminalization of drugs could be applied in B.C.
In the early 2000s, Portugal, which had some of the highest overdose rates in the European Union, largely decriminalized drugs.
Wood said that treating addiction as a health issue instead of a criminal one has seen Portugal鈥檚 overdose rates become some of the lowest in the region, to the point that the country has backed away from supervised injection facilities because there aren鈥檛 enough people using intravenous drugs.
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